Showing posts from December, 2007
Archive: December 2007
RF and Wireless
Originally from EE Times -- and followed by our reader comments They are as follows: 1. High-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA), a third-generation cellular phone technology, will flourish. Its a speculation. The infrastructure and inadequate popularity will push this to 2009. 2. The upcoming 700-MHz spectrum auction in the U.S. will provide an opportunity for a new wholesale carrier that will not sell services directly to consumers. This mod…
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The Editor's Desk
December 20, 2007
Processors
The fury has really been unleashed over at AMD , as the cats in 2nd place take aim at the pocketbooks lowdown, dirty overclockers. Feeling like getting into it? Then you'll probably want to get your hands on the extra-special Phenom 9600 "Black Edition" quad-core processor, which allows brave souls to tweak (i.e., overclock) to their hearts content by utilizing the company's OverDrive utility. It's not all rainbows and uni…
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The Editor's Desk
December 20, 2007
Verification
A gate-level simulation (GLS) interview checks whether you know why GLS is still run after equivalence checking and static timing analysis, what inputs it needs (netlist, testbench, SDF and libraries), and how you debug the problems it finds, such as X propagation, reset issues and timing-check violations. This post keeps the original mock-interview opening and adds worked answers to the questions interviewers ask most often, with the follow-ups…
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The Editor's Desk
December 20, 2007
Career Advice
There is a common phrase used to describe some job candidates - "I don't know whether he has 10 years of experience or 1 year of experience repeated 10 times". It is just not how many years of experience you have that matters. "What" that experience was becomes important. Here is a quick quote that summarizes this brilliantly "It is not how old you are, but how you are old" - Jules Renard
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The Editor's Desk
December 17, 2007
Semiconductor Industry
India and China are playing a major role in shaping the digital convergence, a much-hyped concept that is nevertheless proving to be a big opportunity and challenge for the global electronics industry. It is no doubt reshaping the entire electronics industry. The shift will be characterized by lower power consumption, higher processing capacity, greater functionality, interoperability and wireless access to information from myriad sources along …
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The Editor's Desk
December 13, 2007
Embedded Systems
Analog and Digital Circuits for Electronic Control System Applications: Using the TI MSP430 Microcontroller by Jerry Luecke (Author) "Designers of analog electronic control systems have continually faced the following obstacles in arriving at a satisfactory design: 1. Instability and drift due to temperature..." Book Description Todays control system designers face an ever-increasing need for speed and accuracy in their system meas…
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The Editor's Desk
December 05, 2007
Books and Resources
Analysis and Design of Analog Integrated Circuits (4th Edition) by Paul R. Gray (Author), Paul J. Hurst (Author), Stephen H. Lewis (Author), Robert G. Meyer (Author) "The analysis and design of integrated circuits depend heavily on the utilization of suitable models for integrated-circuit components..." Book Description The fourth edition features coverage of cutting edge topics--more advanced CMOS device electronics to include short…
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The Editor's Desk
December 05, 2007
Physical Design
The Art of Analog Layout by Alan Hastings (Prentice Hall, Pearson Education) is a practical textbook on laying out analog integrated circuits: device physics, process failure modes, parasitics and, above all, how to match devices. It is written for layout designers and keeps the mathematics to basic algebra. This page keeps the original book notes and adds a summary of the core analog layout ideas the book is known for. Key takeaways The bo…
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The Editor's Desk
December 05, 2007
Books and Resources
Analog Circuit Design: Art, Science and Personalities (EDN Series for Design Engineers) by Jim Williams (Editor) "Some time ago I received a call from a colleague, who asked if I would be the referee on the grading of an examination question..." ( more ) Analysis is a science: there's a right answer out there, and we can all agree when it's found. Troubleshooting is the same way: when the broken bit is found and fixed, the…
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The Editor's Desk
December 05, 2007
RF and Wireless
Analog Circuits Cookbook by Ian Hickman (Author) "negative components may not be called for every day, but can be extremely useful in certain circumstances..." ( more ) Book Description Analog Circuits Cookbook is a collection of tried and tested recipes form the masterchef of analog and RF design. Based on articles from Electronics World, this book provides a diet of high quality design techniques and applications, and prove…
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The Editor's Desk
December 05, 2007
VHDL
ASIC and FPGA Verification: A Guide to Component Modeling by Richard Munden is a practical book on writing simulation models of the off-the-shelf chips that sit next to your ASIC or FPGA on a board. It teaches how to build VHDL models with the VITAL standard, how to back-annotate timing with SDF, and how to use those models to verify a whole board, not just one device. If you need to simulate multi-chip digital designs with real timing, it is o…
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The Editor's Desk
December 04, 2007
